Lesser of Two Announcing Evils

By Scott Keith on 13 March 2013

Hey Scott–

So the Cole/Lawler burying of the Highlight Reel last night got me
thinking: When announcers are put in that position, what SHOULD they
do?
Obviously the perfect world involves scripts that don't suck and
performers who can execute them, but let's throw that out for the
moment. Let's also create a fantasy environment where Vince DOESN'T
scream into headsets.
Should an announcer go the Mike Tenay/Tony Schiavone route of
overselling and gushing over a segment that is clearly flopping,
damaging their own credibility but trying to get the product over? Or
do you bury the segment, saying out loud what the audience is perhaps
thinking, but guaranteeing that the angle bombs?

–J

I dunno, a lot of the trainwreck value of the segment WAS Cole and Lawler talking over it. If they had just let it play as is, it probably wouldn't have been perceived as being so brutally bad. Yeah, it was stupid and awkward, but I've seen way worse. Really, there was no reason for the on-screen burial, it was just Vince's whims. It was totally the wrong role for Barrett, of course, as ironically his push has plummeted since winning the IC title, and Jericho sounded like an idiot hyping a movie clip of two random guys shooting gun at each other as "AWESOME", but I'd consider Zeb's god-awful "Mexicans are stoopid" promo much more insulting and dull. But see, Vince LIKES that angle, so we get 5 segments a week with them.